I recently watched a documentary called No Impact Man where a guy and his family were trying to have no environmental impact for a year while living in N.Y. city, and I thought it was pretty interesting. He was admittedly doing it it in part to promote the book he would write from it, but also just to see what it would it would be like living a very minimalist life style. They tried to have zero waste and zero emissions. They used bikes for transportation and walked up stairs rather than use elevators. They even cut the power to their apartment and didn't use toilet paper. Part of it like the toilet paper was over kill but over all it was pretty interesting and the one thing that really struck me about the whole thing was how many of our goals are very similar across different economic and political ideologies.

Those people, their friends, and their future customers for the book were extreme liberals but a lot of what they were doing fits in with prepping and being more self sufficient. For example they tried the clay pot in water using evaporation to keep food cooler because they didn't have electricity (didn't work that great). They also experimented with gardening (urban gardening). And they only bought food from local farmers and even touched on the organic label thing, which isn't necessarily a prepping thing but on a personally level it is really nice knowing where your food comes from and what's in it.

I've personally been on a self sufficiency kick for a awhile now. I don't plan on trying to ever be completely self sufficient but I do want to be much more self sufficient than I currently am, and I liked the way they approached some of this. I have very different goals and reasons for trying to be more self sufficient than they had but there was a lot of cross over. They wanted no impact and zero waste for the "environment" and I want to be more self sufficient in order to improve my quality of life, but the two aren't mutually exclusive.

It was an interesting documentary and would be worth watching if anyone gets a chance to see it. I don't think you'll get much from it in terms of prepping info but it was thought provoking in regards to how much of this ties in together.

A new study out of Stanford University compared organic fruits and vegetables with their conventionally grown counter parts for nutrients. They found that the expensive, organic goods were no more nutritious than their lowly conventional brothers and sisters. The same researchers came to the same conclusion about meats - no obvious health advantages.

A new study out of Stanford University compared organic fruits and vegetables with their conventionally grown counter parts for nutrients. They found that the expensive, organic goods were no more nutritious than their lowly conventional brothers and sisters. The same researchers came to the same conclusion about meats - no obvious health advantages.

Yes, but did anyone do a survey to see what those researchers ate personally? I would be really curious as to the results of that survey.

As I mentioned in this post, and many others, I've been on a self sufficiency kick for sometime now. The biggest reason for that is to improve my quality of living. I've absolutely been amazed at all of the things I've learned over the last few years since I got on this kick, and one of those things applies here.

I got interested in apples a few months back because I wanted to put out fruit trees. I had no idea that there was so much to a simple apple. At one time there were over 16,000 varieties of apples. Today there far fewer people growing apple trees and most have been lost but there are still over 3,000 varieties of apples. I had no idea there were so many because the majority of what I see are the 5 or 6 types in the grocery store. I also learned that there are many different tastes to all of those apples. For example some have a cinnamon flavor. An apple popular in the 1700's has a pineapple flavor.

One thing that became clear to me after learning all that is grocery stores don't carry produce based on what is the best tasting or healthiest. They choose the produce they carry based on economics just like large farms choose which crops to plant based on economics. They choose varieties that ship well, don't bruise easy, will ripen slowly while in transit, are resistant to insects, and so on. I'm not faulting them for that or accusing them of being evil or any of that stuff. They are running a business and they have to make business decisions. But the qualities that make for the best produce to grow in Guatemala and then ship to the grocery store are not the qualities that will make that produce the best to me. Again, they aren't choosing varieties based on what is the best tasting or healthiest and that's because they have too many other factors to also consider.

Local farms have economic decisions to consider as well but transit isn't one of them if it is sold locally. By buying local I get produce that is picked closer to being ripe and so I get produce that tastes better. The more local the better with the best being my backyard. There is no produce anywhere that is better than what is in my backyard, and it is selected solely based on taste (and my taste at that).

I also have to believe that some nutrients are lost during transit but I have no idea how many or if it is even enough to be of any significance? Regardless, I'm certain that nothing from the grocery store is going to be quite as healthy as something that is picked when ripe and consumed then.

As for the organic thing, normal produce may not be any healthier but I sure do feel better eating something that I know was grown in a more natural manner and without all of the chemicals.

I don't doubt the study you cited but I still prefer locally grown and organic just from a quality of living standpoint. If I eat something that tastes much better and is healthier (even if only slightly) then I have improved my quality living, and that's what this is about for me.

What? I suspect it's actually a cleaner method. You really think you get yourself THAT clean by smearing your **** around with paper? Like I said, plenty of hot water and soap. Plus sanitizer if you roll like that.

What? I suspect it's actually a cleaner method. You really think you get yourself THAT clean by smearing your **** around with paper? Like I said, plenty of hot water and soap. Plus sanitizer if you roll like that.